Perceived organizational justice, trust, and OCB: A study of Chinese workers in joint ventures and state-owned enterprises

We examine the relationships among perceived organizational justice, trust, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of workers in joint ventures (JVs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China. We hypothesize different dimensions of organizational justice are related to trust in organization and trust in supervisor, which will in turn affect workers’ OCB. Some of these relationships are hypothesized to be different in SOEs and JVs owing to the differences in management practices and employment relationships between them. Our hypotheses are tested on data collected from 295 supervisor–subordinate dyads in a JV and 253 such dyads in an SOE. The analyses reveal that (1) the positive effect of distributive justice on trust in organization is stronger in JVs than in SOEs, (2) the positive effect of procedure justice on trust on organization is stronger in SOEs than in JVs, (3) the effect of interaction justice on trust in supervisor is similar for both types of organization; (4) trust in organization affects OCB in both SOEs and JVs, and (5) trust in supervisor affects OCB in JVs only.     

Partner nationality, market-focus and IJV performance: A contingent approach

This study examines how Taiwanese firms engaging in various types of international joint ventures (IJVs) have performed in China, and how different types of market-focus affect IJVs’ performance. Based on the IJV classification scheme suggested by [Makino S., & Beamish P. W. (1998). Performance and survival of joint ventures with non-conventional ownership structures. Journal of International Business Studies, 29(4): 797–818], this study outlines and examines three categories of IJVs, according to partner nationality: Taiwan-Taiwan (T-T) JVs, Taiwan-Local (T-L) (China) JVs, and Taiwan-Foreign (T-F) (third-country) JVs. We propose two hypotheses, with associated sub-hypotheses, to examine the major effects of partner nationality on performance, as well as the moderating effects of local market-focus on the relationship between partner nationality and performance. Through the analysis of 236 Taiwanese JVs in China, we find that (1) T-L JVs perform better than T-T JVs and T-F JVs; (2) T-L JVs focusing on the local market do not perform better than those focusing on foreign markets; and (3) T-F JVs focusing on foreign markets perform better than those focusing on the local market.     

Performance effects of alternative joint venture resource responsibility structures

This study examines the relationship between the acquirers of a joint venture's (JV's) resources and the JV's performance in achieving its partners' goals. Research data were collected through surveys of 83 U.S. firms involved in manufacturing JVs to examine the differential impact of alternative resource responsibility structures on JV performance. The analysis shows that JVs receiving a variety of resources from both partners outperform JVs where JV management is responsible for securing its own resources, and outperform JVs receiving resources primarily from a dominant partner. The implications of the study's results for theory development, future research, and practicing managers are discussed.     

The characteristics and stock-market performance of international joint ventures located in three host-country groups: An extension and empirical validation

In a well-known study of joint venture (JV) characteristics, Beamish (1985) compared the attributes and performance of JVs located in developed and developing countries. This study advances Beamish's (1985) work by circumventing some of its key limitations. It compares the structure and stock-market performance of two-party equity JVs across three host-country groups: (i) developed countries, (ii) newly industrialized countries, and (iii) developing countries (including Emerging markets and transition economies). Based on a cross-sectional sample of nearly 1100 JVs involving American firms and non-American partners, this study finds that JV characteristics diverge as well as converge vis-à-vis three host-country groups. Interestingly—unlike Beamish (1985)—differences in JV configurations across these groups do not result in differences in abnormal returns to American parents. However, some JV characteristics consistently influence firms’ shareholder value (albeit sometimes in opposite directions) whereas the valuation impact of other characteristics depends upon a particular host-country group.     

The WTO and entry modes in China

For years, multinational enterprises (MNEs) vying for the Chinese market used joint ventures (JVs) as an entry mode. However, there has been a growing frustration with the JV mode. It is reported that MNEs are increasingly opting for wholly owned subsidiaries for better control. This article examines the recent development of the business environment in China. It concludes that there are now real entry options for MNEs, including exporting, JVs, wholly owned subsidiaries, and acquisitions. China's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) will accelerate the change process and make non‐JV options even more viable. A few decision rules for choosing an entry mode in China are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of group composition and autonomy on the performance of joint ventures (JVs): an analysis based on Spanish export JVs

This paper analyses the effects of group composition and autonomy on the performance of export joint ventures (JVs). The basic argument is that group composition has a significant influence on the performance of JVs and, at the same time, this effect is moderated by the degree of autonomy held by the JV general manager. To lend support to this argument, we take insights from two complementary theoretical approaches: the resource-based view of the firm and the transaction cost theory. The hypotheses set forth are tested on the basis of a sample of 83 Spanish export JVs. The paper contributes to the literature providing evidence on the influence that export JV composition has on performance. It also suggests that autonomy does not directly affect export JV success, but it does, however, have an indirect effect by moderating the relationship between group composition and performance.     

Characterisitcs of Exporting and Nonexporting Joint Ventures in Saudi Arabia

The study profiled 83 exporting and onexporting manufacturing joint ventures (JVs) in Saudi Arabia. This represents about one-fourth of all manufacturing JVs in operation at the end of 1987. Stepwise discriminant analysis showed that a set of 9 characteristics representing 4 factors were signficant in differentiating the two groups. Exporting JVs tend to be larger, produce industrial goods in more technology intensive industrial sectors, and be more leveraged than nonexporting JVs. Potential limitations of these findings, and their implications for the policy makers are also discussed.     

Assessing Managerial Discretion across Different Industries in China

In this study, managerial discretion in 37 industries in China is measured and ranked into high, medium and low groups. The results are compared with findings from Hambrick and Abrhamson＇s （1995） study in the U.S. context, and changes are examined in two dimensions of managerial discretion from 2001 to 2009. This study contributes a reliable measure of managerial discretion for future organizational and strategic studies, which can help explain the differences in managerial phenomena across different industries in China＇s institutional environment.     

Acquisition of managerial knowledge from foreign parents: evidence from Korean joint ventures

This paper contributes to the literature on intra- and inter-firm knowledge transfer by examining knowledge acquisition by Korean international joint ventures from their foreign parents. A conceptual model is presented which identifies the factors that have been found to influence knowledge transfer, organised into variables related to the local recipient firm, the foreign sender firm and the relationship between the two. The model is examined by means of a series of multiple regressions using a sample of 128 Korean international joint ventures. We find that: (1) the international joint ventures intent to learn and international experience; (2) the level of trust between parents and their business relatedness; and (3) the active managerial engagement of the foreign parent are the most important factors explaining the level of knowledge acquisition within the international joint ventures.     

Contingent effects of managerial guanxi on new product development success

A survey of new product development (NPD) managers finds both a linear, positive relationship between managerial guanxi and new product speed to market and an inverted U-shaped relationship between managerial guanxi and new product innovativeness. In addition, both transaction-specific investments (TSIs) and relationship commitment have a positive moderating impact on the relationship between managerial guanxi and new product speed to market. However, TSIs increase the damaging effect of managerial guanxi on new product innovativeness, whereas relationship commitment reduces such an effect. The results from this study can help business practitioners use guanxi to improve NPD performance under different contexts of inter-firm relationships.     

International joint ventures and technology diffusion: Evidence from China

This paper investigates international technology diffusion through FDI by explicitly considering the ownership structure of FDI projects with detailed Chinese data. We find that international joint ventures (JVs) generate significantly positive technology diffusion effects, while wholly foreign-owned firms (WFOs) generate significantly negative competition effects. The differentiated impacts of JVs and WFOs are robust, heterogeneous and causal as shown by our instrumental variable estimation. As for the mechanisms, evidence suggests that JVs bring better technology to the host country, invest more in R&D and employee training, and also provide easier technology access to local firms than WFOs.     

Long‐Term Orientation and Commitment in Export Joint Ventures among Small and Medium‐Sized Firms

Alliances may be an important tool for overcoming the resource and capability deficiencies facing small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), as they help strengthen their market position and facilitate access to new markets. In this paper we focus on domestic joint ventures (JVs) for export purposes. Our aim is to analyze the influence of partners' long‐term orientation on their commitment, while looking into the key antecedents of long‐term orientation: complementarity of partners' resources and trust. The hypotheses set forth are tested on a sample of 70 Spanish domestic export JVs. The data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Our paper contributes to the literature on export JVs and SMEs by providing evidence that long‐term orientation reinforces commitment to devoting the necessary resources and efforts to enable the export JV to succeed. The results also indicate that trust decisively determines the long‐term orientation of the partners to an export JV, and that complementarity of resources plays a relevant role in the development of long‐term orientation by facilitating trust.     

Social media celebrities and new world order. What drives purchasing behavior among social media followers?

Social media celebrities (SMCs) and social media platforms (SMPs) have become indispensable in today's business and marketing settings. Drawing on the celebrity influence model (CIM), this study examines the impact of SMCs on their followers' purchase intention and the moderating influence of SMP usage on the relationships between (a) SMCs and their followers' purchase intention, (b) para-social relationships (PSR) and purchase intention, and (c) identification and purchase intention. We collected 665 valid responses via an online questionnaire in China and then employed partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to examine the proposed relationships between the variables. The findings revealed that SMCs do not significantly influence their followers' purchase intention directly; however, they do exert such influence through PSR and identification. The results further indicated that SMP usage moderates the effect of PSR and identification on purchase intention. Our study offers both theoretical and managerial contributions. Theoretically, the incorporation of CIM into this study's model augments the PSR and identification literature in the context of SMCs. Again, the moderating effect of SMP usage that we reveal is novel in the social media literature. In practice, marketers in China should consider the credibility and rapport a particular social media celebrity has with his or her followers before contracting that particular celebrity to endorse their products.     

Gift Giving,Guanxi and Illicit Payments in Buyer–Supplier Relations in China: Analysing the Experience of UK Companies

This paper explores the relationship between gift giving, guanxi and corruption through a study of the relationships between UK manufacturing companies in China and their local component suppliers. The analysis is based on interviews in the China-based operations of 49 UK companies. Interviews were carried out both with senior (often expatriate) staff and with local line managers who were responsible for everyday purchasing decisions and for managing relationships with suppliers. The results suggest that gift giving is perceived to be a significant problem in UK-owned companies in China. However the relationship between these payments and established understanding of gift giving within guanxi-networks appears to be weak. Gift giving appears to be associated with illicit payments, corruption and the pursuit of self-interest. Firms seek to reduce the incidence of illicit transactions by changing staff roles, instituting joint responsibilities, which include the separation of different aspects of sourcing/purchasing, ineasing the involvement of senior staff in the process and through the education of employee and suppliers.     

Network view of MNCs' socio-political behavior

While business networks and relationships in international and industrial marketing studies are explored extensively, relationships between firms and socio-political actors are rarely been studied. This paper addresses this gap and examines how MNCs manage their relationship with socio-political organizations. The study builds from the proposition that business firms, besides their actions in business market, have to manage their socio-political market. The study aims to develop a theoretical view that is based in business networks and contains the three concepts of legitimacy, commitment and trust. The proposition is that business firms behave proactively towards the actors in the socio-political environment which is related to their business goals. The three conceptual elements will enable us to understand more deeply the varieties in the firms' managerial behavior. Two cases test the concept in the model — those of Daewoo Motor Company (a South Korean MNC) and the Swedish MNC, Vattenfall. The study will contribute towards deeper understanding of socio-political market and how firms manage their socio-political relationships. The conclusions describe the theoretical and managerial implications.     

THE EMPOWERMENT OF FRONTLINE SERVICE STAFF IN 3PL COMPANIES

Research on third‐party logistics (3PL) service providers has focused more on managing customer relationships than on managing the frontline personnel who interact with customers on a daily basis. Thus, even though the overall need for 3PL's to be market‐oriented is well‐recognized, relatively little is known about how 3PL companies support and develop frontline service staff to provide better service. This study draws on 3PL company site managers' responses to a postal survey that examines the influences of internal communication, customer service training and managerial coaching for customer contact employees on the relationship between market orientation and frontline service recovery empowerment.     

Does managerial networking impinge our morality in Guanxi context? The moderating effect of corruption perception

This study explores the relationship between managerial networking and corporate morality in a guanxi context where personal relationship is widely used for organizational purposes. Using a sample of 6361 Chinese private firms, we find a significantly positive relationship between managerial networking and corporate social responsibility, including corporate charitable donations and environmental protection, and an insignificant relationship between managerial networking and the prevalence of business bribery. We also find that such relationships depend on corruption perception, that is, when corruption perception is high, the negative effects of managerial networking are more likely to rise but the positive effects of managerial networking are more likely to be weakened. These results are robust and consistent across various measurements and models.     

Managerial Decision-Making on Moral Issues and the Effects of Teaching Ethics

This study uses judgment and decision-making (JDM) perspective with the help of framing and schema literature from cognitive psychology to evaluate how managers behave when problems with unethical overtones are presented to them in a managerial frame rather than an ethical frame. In the proposed managerial model, moral judgment of the situation is one of the inputs to managerial judgment, among several other inputs regarding costs and benefits of various alternatives. Managerial judgment results in managerial intent leading to managerial action. The model and the effects of taking an ethics course on ethical and managerial judgment and managerial intent were then indirectly tested in this study, wherein subjects judged the ethical wrongness, managerial badness, and the managerial intent regarding decisions made in a case. Forty-nine MBA students analyzed a case involving budget-based bonuses and production, in which the ethical issue evolved over three stages. It appears from the Path-analysis results that managerial judgment mediated between moral judgment and the judgment of managerial intent as suggested by the proposed model, and that taking an ethics course directly affected managerial judgment but did not affect the moral judgment. Additionally, in the first stage of decision-making (early stage of a developing “ethical slippery slope”), moral judgment did not significantly influence managerial judgment. However, students with ethics course still were more inclined to judge the decision as managerially bad as compared to others, indicating that they were more aware or sensitive to the moral issues involved.     

Getting Innovations Out of the Supplier Networks

Current research on purchasing is very much characterized by an interest in relationships. The earlier emphasis (within research as well as among practitioners) on the independence of the buying company-on handling suppliers at arm's length-has gradually been replaced by a more "cooperative" approach. Suppliers are generally more looked upon as external resources, which can be more efficiently used within the frame of close and long-term relationships. A corresponding interest for relationships can be found within research on technical development. There is an emphasis on the importance of relating their own development activities to the development of important counterparts and several studies point to the advantages of technical cooperation. The topic of this article thus involves two different, but in many aspects closely related problem areas, i.e., purchasing and innovation, and in order to treat them in an integrated way and to handle the connections that exist between them we use a network approach. The article is based upon two types of empirical data regarding corporate collaboration in technical development. First, material from a cross-sectional study is used to describe some general characteristics of innovative relationships. Secondly, there are two case studies which illustrate the situation where a buying company tries to combine several relationships in a development project. There are a number of opportunities and problems facing a company which tries to involve its suppliers in technical development, and this article puts forward four key issues concerning the handling of cooperative development processes: the problem of choosing partners as well as of trying to interest and engage those chosen; the problem of synchronization, in technical and other dimensions, of the actors involved in the development process; the problem of timing within and between various relationships; and, as there will always be some resistance to technical change within an industrial network structure, there must also be a mobilization of forces in favour of the development. In conclusion, a penetration of the four key issues in light of the empirical findings gives rise to some managerial implications regarding the use of network relationships in technical development.     

An Empirical Study of Buyer–Supplier Relationships within Small Business Organizations

A paradox exists in small business organizations; although effective buyer–supplier relationships are essential to the success of small businesses, these organizations may not have the purchasing and selling power in terms of managerial resources to implement them. This provides us an opportunity for research to determine how well developed are buyer–supplier relationships within small business organizations. Grounded in transaction cost and resource dependence theory, this paper presents and empirically tests a model that examines the relationships between buyer and supplier specificity and long‐term buyer–supplier relationships and the latter's impact on organizational performance from the buyers' perspective. The results of this study provide insight into the development and impact of buyer–supplier relationships within small business organizations. Several managerial implications can be determined.